"So say all you have to say about him referring to him as Person A. Then in your final line say: 'Person A is Peter Robinson MLA'," Mr O'Hara wrote.

"[It] means that the committee cannot interrupt you and means that you don't have to say Robbo's name until the very last second. So then it's job done!"

The ploy suggested was used by Mr Bryson at the hearing and significantly added to the dramatic effect of his evidence.

Mr Bryson did not dispute being in contact with Mr McKay and Mr O'Hara, but insisted it did not amount to coaching. He also said none of his evidence originated from Sinn Féin.

The committee inquiry was launched last year amid political disquiet over the Project Eagle deal, which saw 850 loans, once valued at €6.3bn and predominantly linked to properties in the North, sold for a knockdown price of €1.6bn to vulture fund Cerberus in April 2014.

Who's who in the saga

Daithí McKay (34) had been an MLA for North Antrim since 2007 and was considered one of Sinn Féin's rising stars. He was only 16 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. He took a big interest in Palestinian rights and the Basque Country when he was in Ógra Shinn Féin. At just 23, he was a councillor in Ballymoney and two years later he took an assembly seat on the first count. He chaired the Stormont finance committee inquiry into the Project Eagle sale but resigned after allegations that he coached a witness to undermine First Minister Peter Robinson.

Jamie Bryson is a loyalist blogger who gained 167 votes in a local government poll in 2011. The next year, he was catapulted to prominence in protests aimed at getting the Union flag flying again at Belfast City Hall. In 2013, police tried to arrest him over public-order offences and said they found him hiding in an attic. Pastor Mark Gordon said Bryson was on a hunger strike in custody but police sources claimed he had lasted just half-a-day before asking for an Indian meal, leading to the nickname 'Jamie Biryani'.

Thomas O'Hara is a Sinn Féin member who starred in his own bizarre YouTube video, based on the dating show 'Take Me Out'. Mr O'Hara, who was 27 when the video was recorded in 2012, was described then as a "wannabe MLA". He said he wanted "to be President of Ireland - 32 counties". He is now in the thick of the political storm after being linked to the 'coaching' of Bryson.